Getting ready to shoot a wedding? Stay organized with our comprehensive wedding photo checklist—including a wedding photography shot list of must-have photos.
Format Team June 3, 2019
Wedding photography can be as stressful as it is fulfilling. The pressure is on wedding photographers to capture every last moment and detail of the big day as it happens, so it pays to stay as prepared and organized as possible. To make absolutely sure you don’t miss a moment, we’ve put together this wedding photography checklist for photographers. We’ll go over everything that goes into a successful wedding shoot, including a sample shot list of must-have wedding photos.
There are as many ways to do weddings—and wedding shoots—as there are couples, so this wedding photography checklist might still be needed to added to, edited, or tweaked to reflect the needs of the folks you’re working with.
Maybe the couple wants to incorporate lots of specific cultural or religious traditions—or they’ve decided to do away with half of the typical wedding tropes altogether. Maybe your couple doesn’t want any of the traditional detail shots—or they’ve been making decorations for weeks, and they want you to capture every last one.
It’s important to consult with the couple about their schedule and wish list and change your plans accordingly, but this wedding photo checklist will provide a thorough overview of all the major tasks you need to complete leading up to a wedding shoot, as well as preparing you for what to expect on the big day.
If you haven’t already, make sure to get an online portfolio set up so you can show off standout shots to potential wedding photography clients. Having a great wedding photography online portfolio is one of the best ways to promote your wedding photography business and show off what you can do, as well as providing prospective customers with useful details like a wedding photography price list.
Fortunately, you can make a beautiful portfolio in a snap with an easy-to-use website builder. Choose one with attractive, customizable templates that work great on both desktop and mobile. A portfolio with built-in client proofing can be particularly useful to wedding photographers.
Want a little bit of inspo to get started? Check out our roundup of 20 incredible wedding photography portfolios.
For wedding photographers, the work starts long before the big day happens. Here’s what you need to do before a wedding shoot to make sure everything’s in order:
Meet the couple
First up on your wedding photography checklist: the introductory consultation. This is where you not only get a feel for the couple and their personalities, but iron out any wedding-related specifics that you might not already be expecting. This information will help you nail all the logistics around the big day, as well as helping you get enough details to put together a wedding photography contract (more on that later).
Here are a few details you’ll want to iron out during the consultation process:
All of this information will help you sort out the next big step in the process:
Get your contract ironed out
Though it’s too often left as an afterthought for photographers, putting together a proper contract is an important step on a wedding day photography checklist.
In addition to laying out obvious details like the date of the wedding as well as your pricing and payment terms, a good contract will also make sure that expectations on both the photographer side and client side are laid out and ensure that you’re both protected in case of any dispute. Though it’s yet another step on an already-rammed wedding photography checklist, photographer Brianna Lane suggests taking the time to meet up in person and go over the contract with a fine-tooth comb—it will go a long way toward avoiding a miscommunication down the road.
A comprehensive wedding photography contract should detail deliverables (i.e. what you’ll be providing to the client at the end of the contract and when). You should also outline your expenses related to the shoot, including things like travel, gear rentals, and the cost of a second shooter, should you choose to use one (see below).
Finally, a contract should include your terms in the event of a cancellation or rescheduling, privacy and copyright terms (which is particularly important if you’d potentially like to add these shots to your photography portfolio), and any other expectations you or your client may want to set in stone prior to the wedding.
For a more detailed rundown on putting together a contract, check out our ultimate wedding photography contract guide. And if you find the paperwork side of your business, like putting together contracts, a little overwhelming in general, you might want to consider looking into CRM software for photographers—many of them can automatically generate pre-templated contracts for you.
Take engagement photos (maybe)
Not every couple has their heart set on an engagement shoot—but being able to photograph the couple before the big day can serve as a useful, lower-pressure dry run for wedding photographers, allowing everyone to get acclimated to one another and to the shooting process.
The couple can learn how to pose comfortably with one another, and you can figure out what poses work best for them while getting more general practice at directing couples to pose (which, like anything, is a skill that takes a little fine-tuning).
Additionally, if you decide to bundle your engagement and wedding photos together as a package, it can be a nice value-add for the couple while securing more business for you. Make sure that these terms are reflected when putting your contract together (see above).
With the big day nearing, it’s time to make sure you know where you’re going to be and when:
Figure out a day-of timeline
Scheduling is key when it comes to weddings—and that’s particularly true for wedding photographers, who invariably end up with a long, long wedding photo list to get through in one day. Because of that, it’s important to get the timeline ironed out ahead of time. You don’t need to have every last moment set in stone months out from the big day; ideally, you’ll have a firm day-of schedule planned out a week in advance.
Here are a few important things to know in advance so you can properly plan your wedding photography timeline checklist for the day of:
Sort out your gear
A couple of weeks out from the wedding, it’s worth taking a moment to think about about what specialized equipment you might need for the job, if any. Though weddings don’t necessarily require a ton of high-end gear, a basic kit might include a zoom lens that works well in low light, prime lenses, and a flash.
A second camera body can help you in moments where speed is of the essence and you don’t have time to swap out your lenses (it can also serve as a backup in case your primary camera fails). Additionally, you might also want to invest in mobile chargers or extra batteries to carry you through a 12-hour day of shooting.
To get an idea of where the gaps in your arsenal might be, check out our lists of the best cameras for wedding photography, lenses for wedding photography, and camera accessories for wedding photography.
Be sure to add any gear you intend on bringing to our sample wedding photography equipment checklist (see below) so you can go over it before the big day.
Find a second shooter
This won’t be a necessary point on every wedding photography checklist, but it’s one that’s absolutely worth considering. After all, no matter how good a wedding photographer you are, you can’t be everywhere at once, and with countless precious moments all happening one after the other, it’s not a bad idea to bring in some backup. If the couple’s budget allows for it, bringing in another photographer you trust as a second shooter can help you optimize your coverage and take a little bit of the pressure off you.
Picking someone with solid photography chops and decent gear is obviously job number one, but you should also select someone who you feel is trustworthy, and who can keep a cool head under pressure. Someone in your network may be an up-and-coming photographer looking for a little extra cash or experience, or you can even look for a possible shooter on Second In Seconds, a handy searchable database put together precisely for this purpose. If you’re looking for more guidance, SLRLounge has a great guide on how to find—and vet—a second shooter.
You’re almost there! Here’s our wedding photography checklist for the day before a shoot:
Take the time to make sure all your gear is packed and ready:
This wedding photography shot list template is meant to be comprehensive but is by no means exhaustive. If you’ve got an idea for a creative, unusual photo, the couple is game, and you’re able to sneak it in to a hectic schedule, go for it! Check out this list of creative wedding shots for a little extra inspiration.
Note: Not all weddings have one bride and one groom, many couples will have mixed-gender wedding parties, and not all couples stick to all the traditions on this list. Every wedding day photography checklist will look a little different—so feel free to tailor this one to your needs!
With all of that out of the way, here’s our essential wedding photo shot list:
Pre-wedding prep and detail shots
The wedding ceremony
Couple and friends/family portraits
Finally, we’ve come to the portrait portion of our essential wedding day photo list. As noted above, you can split these up and do them before or after the wedding, depending on scheduling and whether or not the couple will be seeing one another pre-ceremony.
This can be a hectic part of the day; as suggested above, try to recruit the day-of coordinator or other friend of the couple to round folks up as you tick down the wedding family photo list.
The wedding reception
First off: Get a good night’s sleep. Then it’s time to start wrapping up the final details of the shoot:
Finally: Give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done. Congratulations on successfully making it to the end of our wedding photography checklist!
